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Excerpt: The Silver Tongued City Boy by Tasmin Baker

The Silver Tongued City Boy

By Tamsin Baker

Contemporary m/m novella

Synopsis

Mitchell’s job is his life. He works hard, with good men and he gets to be around the horses he loves. The only thing that will ruin his perfect life is if they find out he’s gay, but that’ll never happen, so he’s safe.

Jayden Donner doesn’t really want to visit his estranged father on his farm, but how else is he going to get the money he needs for his overseas holiday?

When Mitchell first sees Jay, he knows the city boy is trouble. But Jay won’t leave him be, and when the sparks fly, hay bales won’t be the only thing on fire.

Excerpt

The vision in the mirror was not a pretty one.

“I look like you’ve been dragged through a bush backwards.”

His long, red hair stuck out at odd angles and his face had got too much sun. His horrible orange freckles looked like they were on fire. Fuck. He’d taken his akubra off while working on the fence and hadn’t put it back on until he’d finished. It wouldn’t happen again.

“Idiot.” He chastised himself as he unwrapped the dirty bandage and threw it in the bin. He opened the top drawer and pulled out the plastic butterfly clips. Perfect. Now to clean it.

Mitchell turned on the taps and adjusted the temperature. He watched for a moment as the steam rose, braced himself and pushed his right fist beneath the gushing hot water.

“Fuck!” He swore, knives of agony crippling his arm muscles. He withstood the searing pain for another few seconds before pulling it back out and examining the now clean gash. He should probably get some metho or something, but couldn’t be bothered to go searching for it.

At least that got all the dirt out.

“Need some help there?” A smooth, deep voice made Mitchell jump and he whirled around to see a man, who was clearly a city boy, standing in the doorway.

Mitchell stared, the pain in his hand disappearing as his blood ran south. The man in front of him was delicious. Brown straight hair, green eyes and the most amazing mouth Mitchell had ever seen.

The man cocked an eyebrow and ran an assessing eye over Mitchell. “Can I help?”

Mitchell shook himself and grabbed a clean towel hanging from the rack.

He pressed the towel to his dripping wet hand and hissed a little. “Nah, I’m fine thanks.”

The vision in tight blue jeans and white cotton shirt stepped forward and picked up the butterfly tapes from beside Mitchell. As the stranger moved again, Mitchell inhaled the spicy scent of his cologne and groaned from the pain in his groin. It had been far too long since he’d gotten laid.

“Show me.” The man demanded, his tone brooking no argument as he tore open the packaging and held the tape ready.

Mitchell pulled the towel away from his hand and held it out, watching the man’s eyebrows fly up in surprise.

“You sure you don’t need stitches?” He asked as he placed the tape on one side of the cut and pulled the flesh together before sticking the other side down. His hands were soft, not like Mitchell’s own callused ones. Definitely a city boy.

Mitchell shrugged, trying for nonchalance when it was the last thing he was feeling. Those hands may be soft but they looked strong and moved with confidence.

“I hate stitches.”

The man took up another plastic butterfly and stuck it next to the first.

“Yeah, and they say chicks dig scars.”

He looked up and smiled, the effect of those brilliant white teeth enough to make Mitchell fall back a little against the sink. Wow.

“You ok?” The guy asked, stepping closer, making it even harder for Mitchell to think.

He shook his head to clear the fog. “Yeah, fine. What did ya say?”

The brunette took one more butterfly clip and placed it next to the second one.

“I said chicks dig scars.”

Mitchell huffed in response, unable to laugh when he was enduring both the pain of the injury and the closeness of this hot male.

He may as well be honest. If the guy was a homophobe then at least he’d leave Mitchell alone and he could breathe once again.

“I’m not really into chicks, if you get my drift.”

The hot guy’s head shot up and Mitchell got his first real look into those amazing green eyes, which were a little familiar. They were almost yellow at the centre giving him the look of a wild cat.

“Me neither…” He replied, rubbing his thumb gently over the fleshy part of Mitchell’s hand that wasn’t cut and causing fissions of awareness to sparkle and slide across his skin.

“I’m Jayden by the way… Jay.” The hot guy introduced himself and Mitchell swallowed hard, withdrawing his hand that was now tingling as well as throbbing.